File photo: In this July 13, 1996, photo, Jerry Bailey rides Cigar to victory in the Arlington Citation Challenge, in Arlington Heights, Ill. Cigar, the two-time Horse of the Year whose 16-race winning streak is considered one of racing's greatest achievements, died Tuesday night, Oct. 7, 2014, in Lexington, Ky. He was 24. (Jane Gibson/AP File Photo)

File photo: In this Oct. 28, 1995, photo, Cigar, ridden by Jerry Bailey, heads down the homestretch en route to victory in the Breeders Cup Classic at Belmont Park, in Elmont N.Y. Cigar, the two-time Horse of the Year whose 16-race winning streak is considered one of racing's greatest achievements, died Tuesday night, Oct. 7, 2014, in Lexington, Ky. He was 24. (Kevin J. Larkin/AP File Photo)

Jerry Bailey used to say it before he climbed aboard a horse that was bred for grass and found it wasn’t greener. The horse got on the dirt and scratched out a narrative that we might never read again.

“After a few races I knew I’d never ride another horse like Cigar,” Bailey said. “I knew that for a fact.”

Will anyone?

Cigar won 16 consecutive races, the most since Citation in 1948-50. Ten of those races were Grade 1 events, against the heavyweights. He died Wednesday, a 24-year-old who still lured the crowds at his retirement home, Lexington (Ky.) Horse Park.

Think of everything that can wreck a horse racing streak: track consistency, illness, an unfortunate step, bad track position, a bad luck attack. Cigar not only defied all that, he did it on the East Coast, the West Coast and even in Dubai, for the first World Cup.

In doing so, Cigar hooked the consciousness of sports fans the way few two-legged athletes have. When he returned from Dubai he needed a police escort to get into Suffolk Downs for the Massachusetts Handicap. Jack Nicholson showed up, smoking his own cigar, to watch him in the Woodward at Belmont Park.

The streak ended in August of 1996 in the Pacific Classic, but a record crowd of 44,881 jammed Del Mar. And they weren’t there for the betting, not with Cigar a 1-to-10 favorite.

Funny how a horse can project some quality of personality that each person can interpret differently.

“I never get tired of talking about my buddy,” Bailey said.

“Until Cigar, I never really liked horses that much. I just thought it was a part of making a living, like a doctor and a patient. Cigar changed that for me.”

Cigar was five and six during the streak. He ran far past the point where other owners would have sold him or retired him to stud. As it turned out, Cigar was infertile.

“He still belonged in Lexington,” Bailey said. “He was the people’s horse. (Owner) Allen Paulson and (trainer) Bill Mott really did a good job getting him out in front of people. They knew how important it was, even though they ran the risk of tiring him out.

Although Cigar was a grandson of Seattle Slew, he was bred for the turf. Mott tried him on dirt. In his third appearance, Cigar won an allowance race by eight lengths, and then won the NYRA Mile, a Grade I event, by nine lengths. History flowed from there.

He won the Donn Handicap the next spring at Gulfstream, when the great champion Holy Bull broke down. The streak reached eight when Cigar was shipped to Hollywood Park for the Hollywood Gold Cup, against an all-star cast that Cigar smoked by 3 1/2 lengths.

A Breeders Cup Classic victory ended Cigar’s 10-0 run through 1995.

But the real classic was the inaugural World Cup in Dubai. a nearly unthinkable journey for man and beast.

“Even for myself I had to take all kinds of precautions with what I ate, how I slept, all that,” Bailey said. “Everything was different. It was a night race, for one thing, and the track kept changing all day. And then it was a longer straightaway (five-eighths of a mile) than I was accustomed to.”

Cigar broke free at the top of that stretch, but then Gary Stevens, atop Soul of the Matter, charged alongside. At one point he caught Cigar.

“But then Cigar did what he always did,” Bailey said. “He dug deep and made another move. I saw the wire and I didn’t have any doubt we’d get there first.”

They did.

Finally it ended at Del Mar when trainer Richard Mandella sent three horses after Cigar. Siphon pushed Cigar to a fast early pace, and Dare And Go caught and passed him down the stretch. Cigar had one more victory left, at the Woodward, and retired as the biggest money-maker in racing history.

“Usually the noise builds up down the stretch,” said Tom Robbins, executive vice president at Del Mar, “but that day there was just a hush. It was pretty clear at the end that he wasn’t going to win.

“It was the type of crowd you get on opening day, or when we have a big giveaway. There just haven’t been many horses with that type of appeal.”

Bailey remembers the morning of a big race in which he tapped Cigar on the head. Cigar briskly shook his head in response. No, not now, he was saying. This is game time.

“The next day he came over to my little boy and just bent down and nuzzled him on the face, like he was a pony,” Bailey said.

How smart are horses, really? Well, they’re smart enough not to bet on people. In fact, the racetrack floors are littered with the crinkled tickets of our own bad judgment.

That’s why we need a whiff of the next Cigar, to run past our brains and into our hearts.